


love me for real?

by ikonichiwa



Category: iKON (Korea Band)
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, JundongFicExchange2019, M/M, it ends up being real though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-12 04:28:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20159077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ikonichiwa/pseuds/ikonichiwa
Summary: Donghyuk and Junhwe end up in a fake relationship, and they end up accidentally falling in love too except neither of them is very good at communication.





	love me for real?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yayame](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yayame/gifts).

> oof hi its my first fic  
this is for Jundong week!!! i hope it's not too disappointing
> 
> for this fic, dongi is a cheerleader, specifically the flyer (the one that gets lifted/thrown) and june is a basketball player. bobby is too but that's not really important.
> 
> i hope you enjoy

Donghyuk threw his towel over his shoulder as he picked up his water bottle. Even more than halfway through the season, he still felt like he was new to flying. He trusted his teammates, but he still was so scared of being dropped. He’d seen people be seriously injured, and that definitely didn’t do his anxiety any good.

“Dongi?” He looked up as he heard his name. 

“Hyejin, hi!” He smiled at her.

“How do you feel about practice today?” 

Donghyuk sighed as he sat down. “I don’t know. I don’t feel so great about some of those stunts.” This was his first year as a flyer, and he wasn’t so confident in his abilities. He was honestly terrified for the next game. He couldn’t think of anything worse than being dropped on his face in front of the entire school. Hyejin sat down next to him and put her arm around his shoulders.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. That pyramid was a little shaky, but I’m sure we’ll have it completely solid by next week. And if something does happen you know I’m not gonna let you fall.” 

“I know,” Donghyuk said, “I just can’t help thinking about what if I do fall. Everyone will laugh at me.” Hyejin tightened her arm around his shoulders.

“If anyone laughs, I’ll beat them up. But I won’t let you fall.”

Donghyuk finally looked up from the floor, and saw the basketball team across the gym. It was one of the rare days where they practiced together. His eyes fell on the captain of the team, the school heartthrob; everyone loved Koo Junhwe. He was charming, athletic, a good singer… and a mystery. No one understood Junhwe, and sometimes Donghyuk found himself sucked into the mystery too. Except he was way out of his league.

A small smile found its way to Hyejin’s lips as she noticed where Donghyuk was looking. “He’s gorgeous, isn’t he?” she whispered, even though there was no one around to hear them.

“Extremely,” Donghyuk smiled as he heard Junhwe laughing. 

“You’re practically heart eyeing him,” Hyejin playfully smacked him on the arm. “Come on, ask him to prom!”

“What!? Hyejin, I can’t!” Junhwe only dated hot, popular girls and the occasional guy from the basketball team. And it was never anything serious. None of those relationships lasted long.

Hyejin just giggled as she leaned closer. “I heard he doesn’t have a date yet.” Donghyuk couldn’t help looking up at Junhwe again. 

“That’s impossible,” he said. “Look at how amazing he is. There’s no way he hasn’t been asked yet!”

“Oh he’s been asked. He’s just turned everyone down.” Donghyuk looked at Hyejin with wide eyes.

“So what would make me any different??” he asked.

“I don’t know. You’re cute, Donghyuk. Might as well shoot your shot.” Hyejin stood up and grabbed her bag. “He’s heading this way, so I’ll leave you to it.” She hugged Donghyuk before shoving him in Junhwe’s direction. 

Donghyuk could already start to feel his face heat up, and it took so much to not just look at the floor. “Um… hi?” 

“Hey. It’s Donghyuk, right?” Donghyuk felt his heart do a little flip at the fact that Koo Junhwe knew his name.

“Yeah…” Really what did he have to lose. If he said no, at least he wouldn’t be the only one rejected. “Um, I have something I need to tell you. Ask you actually.”

“Go for it.”

Donghyuk’s hands went to the hem of his shirt to nervously twist it. No going back now. “Do you maybe want to go to prom with me?” He couldn’t look at June’s face. He just knew he was going to be rejected. He eyes flitted around the gym, and he saw that everyone else was gone. At least there was no one there to witness his failure.

“Sure.” 

Donghyuk looked up at June with wide eyes, and June chuckled at his surprised expression.

“Why not shock people?”

Donghyuk tried to regain some of his composure. “I mean, I don’t really think anyone will be shocked by you going with a guy. Everyone kinda knows what’s happened between you and Bobby.” He was caught off guard by the blush on June’s face when he mentioned Bobby, but both of them just ignored it.

“Yeah, but you’re a cheerleader.” June said.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re a cheerleader.” June repeated. “I don’t go out with cheerleaders. Everyone thinks the basketball player and the cheerleader is the cutest couple, but I never wanted to be the dumb sterotypical jock and his cheerleader partner, but hey, why not give people something to talk about?”

“That’s not what I expected but okay.” Donghyuk was a little hurt that June only wanted to go with him to shock other people, but he decided even one night was worth it. He liked June so much. It’d be nice to pretend even if it was only for a day. He could be selfish for just one day.

“Hey,” June said. “What if we play this up a little bit, act like a real couple?”

“You want to date me?” Donghyuk asked.

“Yeah, but like in a fake way.”

“Hey June!” Bobby peeked inside the gym. “Are you coming or what?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right there.” He turned back to Donghyuk. “I’ve gotta go I guess.” He started to walk away but then he turned back and held out his phone to Donghyuk. “Give me your number?”

Donghyuk took the phone, typed in his number, and handed it back to June.

“I’ll see you later then.” June said, and then he was out the door on his way to Bobby.

* * *

  


June: yo its your prom date

dk: hey :)

June: so how do we wanna do this

June: like do we wanna be a thing before or just bust open the doors at prom

dk: i think itd be cute if we were a couple before but really its whatever you wanna do

June: then we’ll be a couple

* * *

June had decided to make a show of meeting Donghyuk after practice. It’s not like Donghyuk minded. He just wished it was real. He would just pretend until prom. He wouldn’t get too attached.

After June was done showing him off at practice, they went on a date. As they were walking through the park, they saw Bobby. June quickly pulled Donghyuk under the shade of a tree. 

“Hey can you just look like I’m being romantic or some shit?” June asked.

“Um, like this?” Donghyuk reached out to hold both of June’s hands, smiling softly.

“Yeah that’s perfect.” June leaned a little closer, but Donghyuk only leaned back.

“What’s your deal with him anyway? Why are you being so weird about this and about him?”

“It’s nothing really. It’s stupid.” June was absentmindedly stroking his thumb over the back of Donghyuk’s hand. “It’s not anything important…”

“It’s clearly important to you, so as your fake boyfriend let it be important to me too.”

“I-...” June was avoiding looking at Donghyuk. “That thing that happened between us… It was supposed to be a one time thing. It was just a dumb, one time, stupid, drunk thing... And then one time was a few times. A few times became a lot of the time, and we weren’t even drunk anymore. There wasn’t any excuse anymore, and people weren’t ever supposed to find out. But, um… They did. And it didn’t mean anything to Bobby, but it did to me.”

Donghyuk looked at their hands joined together, and he realized he barely knew him. Everybody always assumed that he was cold and heartless. Just a dumb jock. A player. No one ever thought he could ever be hurt by love, and Donghyuk wondered if it was his place to ask.

“I’m sorry if this is overstepping, but were you-... Did you love him?”

“I think I still do.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah…” Bobby finally saw them over by the tree and waved. June moved one of his hands up to Donghyuk’s jaw, and he whispered in his ear. “Kiss me.”

Donghyuk looked into June’s eyes, and for the first time he could see how hurt he was. For the first time, his eyes were unguarded, and Donghyuk could see how desperate he was to forget Bobby. “Just this once.” he whispered back.

* * *

June and Donghyuk went on more dates after that, but they hadn’t kissed again. Anytime June would lean in, Donghyuk would lean away. He didn’t really question it because he didn’t want to push Donghyuk into something he didn’t want to do, but he was a little frustrated with it. Yeah the first, and only, time they’d kissed it had been to try to show Bobby he was over him, but as time went on June found that he wanted to kiss Donghyuk just because. He thought he looked cute when he was smiling, laughing, cheering, or really doing just about anything. He just thought Donghyuk was cute, and he wanted to hold him and kiss him. 

But he wasn’t in love…

Was he?

* * *

  


It was finally prom day. Donghyuk was at Hyejin’s house getting ready. They had been talking the whole day about cheer and basketball and boys and just about anything. Hyejin definitely took her chance to brag about being right, teasing Donghyuk with endless I told you sos.

“Aren’t you glad I told you to ask him? He’s so into you.”

“There’s no way he even likes me.” Donghyuk said as he picked up another makeup brush. “This whole thing is fake. It’s just so he can forget Bobby or some shit like that.”

“Dongi,” Hyejin looked at him after she finished putting on her winged liner. “Have you seen the way he looks at you? There’s no way he’s not in love. It’s cute, really.”

“It’s just acting for sure. It’ll be over soon anyway.” he looked over as his phone lit up. It was June.

June: i cant wait to see you tonight

June: i already know youll look amazing

  


Hyejin saw the messages. “So is that just acting then?” Donghyuk didn’t answer. After a few seconds, Hyejin realized he was going to stay silent. She reached across the counter to grab some kohl eyeliner. “Here let me give you some eyeliner.”

Then the two friends settled back into an easy rhythm of doing each others makeup and cracking jokes until it was time to leave.

* * *

At the beginning of the night, June was hyper aware of Bobby. He was so nervous anytime he looked over at them, but as the night went on Bobby drifted far from his mind and Donghyuk was all he could see. He wasn’t one to dance, but Donghyuk definitely was. June smiled at the way his eyes lit up when his favorite song came on. He was so easily sexy and cute, and he didn’t even know it. June felt his heart warm when he looked at him dancing, and maybe Donghyuk meant a little more to him than he thought.

Donghyuk looked over at June and smiled, holding out his hand in an offer to dance as a slow song began to play. June didn’t slow dance. Ever. But maybe just this once.

He didn’t really know what he was supposed to do, but as soon as he was holding Donghyuk everything felt right. He still didn’t know what he was doing, but that was okay. They swayed back and forth on the dance floor, both their hearts racing. Donghyuk leaned his head on June’s shoulder, and he was thinking about what Hyejin said. He’d never thought June looked at him in any special way. He looked at him how he looked at everyone else. Almost as if to prove it to himself, he lifted his head to look at June, and… He looked happy and peaceful, and his eyes had a faraway dreamy look. And fuck, Donghyuk thought, this is what she meant. It’s that dumb look boys give their girlfriends in movies, and he’d always found it annoying, but maybe he didn’t mind so much when he was the one recieving it. He was a little startled when June giggled.

“What?” Donghyuk asked.

“Nothing.” June’s arm slid up from his waist, across his arm, and to his cheek. “I just really wanna kiss you right now.”

Donghyuk’s heart fluttered. He really wanted to, but… “We shouldn’t” he said. June’s hand fell back down to his shoulder.

“Why not?”

“If you kiss me, I want it to be real. I don’t want you to kiss me just because people are watching.” June looked away in shame. That was how it was in the beginning. He’d really only wanted this to prove to people and to himself that he didn’t care about Bobby anymore. But then he got to know Donghyuk, and everything changed. He closed his eyes, and he could think of a million things he could say, but he choked up and he couldn’t bring himself to say anything but…

“It is real.” Donghyuk didn’t say anything, and suddenly June felt his lips on his. It felt like sunshine spreading through his body, warm and happy. Only one thought was on his mind. _ I’m in love with Kim Donghyuk. _He’d never thought about it before, never put a name to the feeling, and it felt scary and safe all at the same time. But it felt right. 

When they pulled away from each other, the world was just them. They stayed quiet, looking into each other’s eyes. Neither of them noticed the song fading away, and the pounding bass of the next song shocked them out of their moment. They both giggled as they moved off the dance floor. 

* * *

June and Donghyuk stayed side by side, holding hands the rest of the night. June kept leaning over to kiss Donghyuk. Even after just two kisses, he was addicted. Donghyuk knew the longer he kept letting him kiss him, the more heartbroken he was going to be when it ended, but he couldn’t help but be selfish. He could enjoy this just for the night because tomorrow it would be over. He felt warm and fuzzy after their kiss on the dance floor, but he knew that it was all just for show. Why not give people something to talk about? It was probably stupid for Donghyuk to kiss him, but couldn’t he let himself be happy just for tonight.

June’s kisses were getting more and more frequent, and both of them were letting their hands wander a little too far. Finally, June whispered in his ear, “We can leave if you want. We can go back to my place.” _ We shouldn’t. _Donghyuk thought.

“Sure.” Go, even if you can’t have it. One more show before it’s over. Everyone had been talking about them. If they left together, people would talk even more. That’s what June wanted right?

June eagerly pulled Donghyuk up from where they were sitting and tugged him towards the door. His face heated up as he heard a few members of the basketball team whistle as they walked past. Once they were out the door, Donghyuk had expected June to let go of his hand, but he only let go once they got to his car. June slid in the driver's side and immediately pulled Donghyuk towards him. Donghyuk let himself enjoy the kiss, but when June’s lips went to his neck he pushed him away.

“Why are you still kissing me?”

“Because I want to? I thought we were on the same page here.” June pulled away some more but left one arm around Donghyuk.

“Yeah, we are.” Donghyuk pushed his arm away too. “There’s no one here to watch, so you can stop now.” He had to stop this now before his heart broke even more. 

“It’s not about that anymore.” June tried to lean forward again, but Donghyuk pushed him back.

“Look I know you don’t really care about whatever this is, but I do.” June finally completely pulled back, and there was hurt in his eyes.

“How can you say that after I just told you how I feel?”

“You never said anything.”Donghyuk was starting to raise his voice. “This was all just for everyone else. Never once did you tell me how you felt about me at all.”

“I just did!” June leaned his head against the steering wheel. “You don’t understand. I can’t say those words, and I’ve been trying to tell you but you don’t get it. I’m so scared of losing you because you don’t understand how I feel.”

Donghyuk could see tears falling from his eyes, and June was right. He didn’t understand. “How am I supposed to know if you don’t tell me?” he asked softly.

“I can’t…” June’s voice was shaking now. “I can’t tell you like everyone else. I can tell you my way, but I can’t just say it like everyone else.”

“Then tell me your way.”

June was silent for a long time before he picked up his phone, scrolling silently. Donghyuk was about to ask what he was doing when June handed it to him with a pair of earbuds. “Listen to this.” Donghyuk took the phone and tried to look at June’s face, but he just kept turning away.

He was confused and worried about June, but he put in the earbuds anyway. He closed his eyes as soft string instruments washed over him. 

_ You never knew how I feel baby _

_ When you kissed me you driving me crazy _

_ Oh you made my life complete _

_ Oh yes you do _

_ Oh yes you do my baby girl my baby _

A love song, Donghyuk thought. Of course it was.

_ When I’m next to you _

_ The world plays a song for me sometimes _

_ Even if I hurt you _

_ Never let go of your hand _

_ Just let her keep on realize that _

_ That you’re in love, that you’re in love _

_ That you’re in love, that you’re in love _

_ Baby I’m in love _

_ A love that won’t ever come to me again _

_ I’m in love yes I’m in love with you _

Donghyuk opened his eyes to see June pressed as far against the opposite side of the car as he could be, looking out the window, and he realized why Koo Junhwe was such a mystery to everyone. 

_ Sometimes, I’m poison to you _

_ I might give you a hard time baby _

_ But after time, when you look back _

_ I hope you’ll be smiling, my baby _

_ So I can be your last that no one else was _

  


This was the only time Donghyuk had ever seen him be vulnerable. It wasn’t in a way that most people would expect, and Donghyuk couldn’t quite say he understood. But he realized that this was terrifying for June. 

_ So come and take my hand _

_ I’ll hold onto you _

_ When you’re about to collapse _

_ I’ll be your shoulder _

_ So you can rest _

_ I’ll walk with you _

_ When no one’s there _

_ I won’t let go of your hand _

_ I’ll keep telling you _

_ Baby I’m in love with you _

Love, Donghyuk supposed, gave you the power to hurt someone. If you were hurt by a person you loved, that hurt stays with you forever. There are memories of happy and sad, angry and upset, but nothing stays with you like love.

_ That I’m in love, that I’m in love _

_ That I’m in love, that I’m in love _

_ Baby I’m in love, for real _

_ A love that won’t ever come to me again _

_ I’m in love yes I’m in love with you _

Everyone thought that June was cold or uncaring, but what if it was just because he was scared? Nobody could use his feelings against him if no one knew how he felt. His efforts to let his heart remain unbroken ending up closing him off from everyone. He was too scared to let himself show how he was feeling about anything, not even just love.

  


_ I know I still lack many things _

_ I keep making mistakes _

_ But I just wanna let you know _

_ That I am just young and I’m a fool _

_ I know I’m not satisfying you right now, little baby _

_ But take a little time for you, only one _

_ You know, baby I’m in love with you _

Donghyuk didn’t know if June had been hurt by someone he loved, or if he was just always this way. From what he’d understood from June’s story about Bobby, he had been scared of telling Bobby how he felt too. He couldn’t help but wonder how many people had hurt June just because they couldn’t understand how he felt. 

_ I’m in love _

_ I’m in love _

_ Girl I’m in love _

_ I’m in love _

_ Just come on and share your love _

_ A love that won’t ever come to me again _

_ I’m in love yes I’m in love with you _

  


Donghyuk pulled the earbuds out and looked at June still smashed against the window.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Uum… You were right. I don’t understand.” He saw June’s body tense and quickly amended, “I mean I do understand how you feel, and I feel the same way. But maybe I just don’t understand your way of doing things. I guess this is something we’ll get better at, but just know you can show me songs anytime.”

June shakily sat up straight, but he still wouldn’t look at Donghyuk as he said thank you. His voice was still shaking. 

“Hey, it’ll be okay. “ Donghyuk was about to go on when June suddenly said, “Will you stay with me tonight?” His whole body was tense, and he was barely breathing, waiting for an answer. 

“Of course.. But can I ask why?”

June let out his breath, still shaky but getting better. “I just want to be with you. I’ll feel better if you’re with me.”

* * *

They went back to June’s house, and June seemed very shy and very tired after that conversation, so they just went to bed. They were laying on opposite sides of the bed, and Donghyuk could tell that June was trying very hard to not let any part of them touch.

“I love you,” Donghyuk said. He could feel June becoming tense beside him. “You don’t have to say it back. I just wanted to make sure you knew.”

He rolled over and put his arm around June, who only hesitated a second before scooting closer and snuggling into his chest. Maybe this would be different, not at all like he imagined. He was seeing a different side of Koo Junhwe that most people probably hadn’t ever seen. He was so grateful that June had trusted him enough to show him how he felt. And yeah it was different, but different can be good too.

**Author's Note:**

> the elements i was assigned for this fic were 1. a fake relationship which honestly god bless because it's one of my favorite things and 2. cheerleaders/sports  
sorry for any mistakes. this is sleep deprived writing at its best  
hope you have a lovely day reader :)


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